Expectation Propagation on the Maximum of Correlated Normal Variables

Many inference problems involving questions of optimality ask for the maximum or the minimum of a finite set of unknown quantities. This technical report derives the first two posterior moments of the maximum of two correlated Gaussian variables and the first two posterior moments of the two generating variables (corresponding to Gaussian approximations minimizing relative entropy). It is shown how this can be used to build a heuristic approximation to the maximum relationship over a finite set of Gaussian variables, allowing approximate inference by Expectation Propagation on such quantities.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Substance, Reality, and Distinctness

Descartes claims that God is a substance and that mind and body are two different and separable substances. This paper provides some background that renders these claims intelligible. For Descartes, that something is real means that it can exist in separation, and something is a substance if it does not depend on other substances for its existence. Further, separable objects are correlates of distinct ideas, since an idea is distinct (in an objective sense) if its object may be easily and clearly separated from everything that is not its object. It follows that if our idea of God is our most distinct idea, as Descartes claims, God must be a substance in the Cartesian sense of this term. Second, if we can have an idea of a thinking subject that does not in any sense refer to bodily things, and if bodily things are substances, then mind and body must be two different substances

Many Things in Parables: Extravagant Stories in New Community

Reviewed Book: Borsch, Frederick Houk, Bp. Many Things in Parables: Extravagant Stories in New Community. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988

Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care

Reviewed Book: Patton, John. Pastoral Care in Context: An Introduction to Pastoral Care. Louisville, Ky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993

METACLADISTICS

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74736/1/j.1096-0031.1989.tb00491.x.pd

China-Australia: Organic opportunities

A century ago, China’s sustainable agricultural practices were documented and praised by US Professor of Agriculture, Franklin King, for the successful stewardship of agricultural land over four millennia. Over the past decade, Australia and China have converted more land to organic agriculture than any other of the 160 countries reporting organic agriculture statistics (for Australia, 4.3 m newly converted hectares, and for China, 1.8 m hectares). Australia accounts for about a third of the world’s certified organic agriculture hectares. China’s ‘economic miracle’ has been at the great cost of environmental degradation. There is a role for the development of organic agriculture in China to help achieve a clean green future. Added to this, consumers want safe food and they attribute a premium price to certified organic food. This paper presents a spectrum of indices of organics leadership and reveals great opportunities for growth in the organics sector. There are opportunities for the development of organic aquaculture, organic wildculture, organic forestry, for growing the domestic market and per capita organic consumption, and for publishing organics research. Organic accounts for 0.86% of global agricultural land, Australia’s agricultural land is 2.93% certified organic, and for China the figure is 0.36% which offers plenty of room for improvement. China’s prevailing levels of pollution call for massive remediation action, and the uptake of organic agriculture can be one component of the solution to restoring China’s environment to a healthy state and to providing safe food for consumers

First Record Of \u3ci\u3eAxymyiidae\u3c/i\u3e (Diptera: Nematocera: Axymyioidea) From Wisconsin

The nematoceran fly family, Axymyiidae, is recorded from Wisconsin for the first time. A single adult female Axymyia furcata was collected in flight near a dead log along a forested path in south central Wisconsin on 24 April 2000